34 <strong>Two</strong> <strong>decades</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>community</strong> <strong>forestry</strong> <strong>in</strong> <strong>Nepal</strong>: <strong>What</strong> <strong>have</strong> <strong>we</strong> <strong>learned</strong>?
<strong>Two</strong> <strong>decades</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>community</strong> <strong>forestry</strong> <strong>in</strong> <strong>Nepal</strong>: <strong>What</strong> <strong>have</strong> <strong>we</strong> <strong>learned</strong>? 6. GOOD GOVERNANCE “In the NSCFP area, there is <strong>in</strong>creas<strong>in</strong>g accountability <strong>of</strong> related stakeholders such as CFUGs, CFUG committees, DOF and FECOFUN…. Synergies <strong>have</strong> been built among multiple partners.” Nawaraj Neupane, CEEPARD, Dolakha “Through its good governance programme, NSCFP has supported [CFUG] executive committee members <strong>in</strong> realis<strong>in</strong>g their duties, rights and responsibilities.” Nir Bahadur B.K. Identifi ed poor and vice secretary, Sallaghari CFUG, Kathajor, Ramechhap Accord<strong>in</strong>g to the UNDP, “Good governance ensures that political, social and economic priorities are based on broad consensus <strong>in</strong> society and the voices <strong>of</strong> the poorest and the most vulnerable are heard <strong>in</strong> decision mak<strong>in</strong>g over the allocation <strong>of</strong> development resources. It <strong>in</strong>cludes essential elements such as political accountability, reliable and equitable legal frameworks, bureaucratic transparency, effective and effi cient public sector management, participatory development and the promotion and protection <strong>of</strong> human rights.” 14 The concept <strong>of</strong> “good governance” used by NSCFP follo<strong>we</strong>d the defi nition used by UNDP (see box above). The key pr<strong>in</strong>ciples <strong>of</strong> good governance that <strong>we</strong>re specifi cally promoted <strong>we</strong>re: transparency, accountability, equity, <strong>in</strong>clusive participation, effi ciency and effectiveness. These pr<strong>in</strong>ciples <strong>we</strong>re implicit <strong>in</strong> early project phases, but became <strong>in</strong>creas<strong>in</strong>gly explicit over the project lifetime. Good governance was encouraged <strong>in</strong> all three ma<strong>in</strong> sectors <strong>of</strong> society: government (the Forest Department), the private sector (the service providers and private forest-based enterprises); and civil society (the CFUGs and their federation FECOFUN). It was applicable to all project activities and partners, <strong>in</strong> both capacity build<strong>in</strong>g and <strong>in</strong> project practice – <strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g the behaviour <strong>of</strong> project staff. That said, governance-based <strong>in</strong>terventions follo<strong>we</strong>d the same trend as described for human resource and <strong>in</strong>stitutional development – shift<strong>in</strong>g from an early focus on the Forest Department, to a subsequent focus on the NGO service providers, and then to the CFUGs. As greatest efforts <strong>have</strong> been focused on the CFUGs, it is this experience that is highlighted – especially as it is through such <strong>in</strong>terventions that greatest opportunities are seen for future developments <strong>in</strong> bottom-up governance processes. First attempts to promote <strong>community</strong> <strong>forestry</strong> <strong>in</strong> <strong>Nepal</strong> (1978 – 1988) focused on hand<strong>in</strong>g over responsibility for forest management to local government (then the panchayat, a s<strong>in</strong>gle party political and village adm<strong>in</strong>istrative unit). An important government decision early <strong>in</strong> the lifetime <strong>of</strong> NSCFP (as promulgated <strong>in</strong> the Forest Act 1993), which had far-reach<strong>in</strong>g implications for good forest governance, was to 14 http://www.pogar.org/publications/other/undp/governance/undppolicydoc97-e.pdf 35